Munich reopened the Olympic race: city council backed the final concept for the 2036, 2040 or 2044 Games
Munich has taken an important step toward a possible German bid for the 2036, 2040 or 2044 Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games. The city council of the Bavarian capital, at a plenary session on 20 May 2026, once again supported by a large majority the intention that the city, with the support of the Free State of Bavaria, be chosen as the German candidate in the procedure led by the German Olympic Sports Confederation, known by the abbreviation DOSB. According to a statement from the City of Munich, council members at the same time approved the final, more detailed bid concept that had been prepared in previous months in cooperation between city departments, Bavaria, the scientific community, the business sector and organised sport.
The decision does not mean that Munich has already won the right to organise the Games, nor that Germany has already been officially entered as an international candidate. This is the national selection phase in which Munich is competing with Berlin, Hamburg and the Cologne-Rhine-Ruhr region. According to the announced schedule, the DOSB is expected to decide on the German candidate at an extraordinary assembly on 26 September 2026 in Baden-Baden. Only after that could the international phase toward the International Olympic Committee begin, whose host-selection procedure has become more flexible in recent years than before and is no longer tied to a strict cycle of seven years before the Games are held.
Munich bases its bid on the recognisable Olympic legacy of 1972, existing sports infrastructure and the idea of compact, sustainable Games. In doing so, the city wants to show that a major sports competition can be integrated into long-term urban planning, transport and environmental goals, and not built as a separate project that lasts only a few weeks. Official documents emphasise that existing venues would be modernised, that new construction would be justified by long-term use, and that the Olympic and Paralympic project should accelerate the development of housing, public transport and green spaces.
The concept relies on short distances and existing sports venues
According to the City of Munich's announcement, one of the main strengths of the bid remains the compactness of the sports plan. The new concept points out that travel from the Olympic Village to 90 percent of sports venues would take less than 30 minutes, while roughly half of the sports would be held within the Olympic Park area. The city also states that more than 90 percent of athletes would be housed in the Olympic Village, which is an important element compared with bids that rely on much more dispersed venues.
The more detailed concept also brings changes to the sports schedule. According to Munich's statement, men's baseball, women's softball, cricket, flag football, lacrosse and squash have been added to the plan as additional sports. According to the city's plan, squash would be held in the new PaketPost-Areal district, while football is planned with a more compact schedule than in the earlier proposal. Along with the Allianz Arena, Nuremberg, Augsburg and Stuttgart, the stadium on Grünwalder Straße, the Olympic Stadium for selected group-stage matches and Ingolstadt are now also mentioned, while more distant stadiums would be dropped.
According to the city, such a model would open the possibility for all football teams to be accommodated in the Olympic Village for the first time and thus be more strongly connected with the rest of the Olympic event. The bid also particularly highlights Theresienwiese, best known as the site of Oktoberfest, where the concept of a so-called "Olympic Wiesn" could be developed. The city states that individual programme elements, a volunteer centre and, according to the current plan, the beach volleyball competition could be held there. Such a solution should connect the sports programme with Munich's local urban and cultural identity, but its feasibility will depend on further examination of security, transport and organisational requirements.
"Circular Games" and autonomous mobility as central assets
Munich's bid aims to distinguish itself from the competition by emphasising sustainability and innovation. The new concept particularly highlights two major projects, which the city calls "power projects". The first is titled "Green Munich + Circular Games" and should show how the organisation of a major sports competition can be guided by the principles of the circular economy. According to the City of Munich's statement, the idea includes circular construction and infrastructure, adaptation of public space to climate change, urban mining and the use of material flows in a way that would reduce waste and increase the reuse of resources.
The second project concerns autonomous mobility. Munich wants to use the Games as a catalyst for testing and introducing autonomous solutions in public transport and urban traffic. The official description mentions autonomous vehicles in public transport, autonomous rickshaw shuttles and data-based management of traffic flows. According to the city, the goal is to develop a visible and effective system that would not serve only visitors and participants of the Games, but would remain useful even after the competition has ended.
Such elements follow the broader direction of Olympic reforms. In its official explanations of the host-selection process, the International Olympic Committee states that candidates are expected to make greater use of existing and temporary venues and to build new facilities only where there is a clear long-term need. The aim is to reduce financial and infrastructure risk, especially after earlier editions of the Games around the world that were criticised because of expensive venues without sustainable use after the competition. Munich's bid is therefore presented as an attempt to connect the Olympic project with the city's already planned development, rather than as a standalone investment exception.
Citizens have already given their support, but the procedure is not yet complete
An important political foundation of the bid is the referendum held on 26 October 2025. According to the official final result published by the City of Munich, 305,349 voters, or 66.4 percent of those who voted, supported the question of whether the city should bid for the 2036, 2040 or 2044 Olympic and Paralympic Games. There were 154,359 voters against, or 33.6 percent. The city stated that the required quorum had been met, and turnout was 42 percent, which was described as a record for a city referendum in Munich.
That support carries significant political weight because the issue of Olympic bids in Germany has often in the past met with caution or open opposition from citizens. Munich previously abandoned its bid for the 2022 Winter Olympic Games after a negative referendum outcome in 2013, while other German cities in previous years also had problems with local support for major sports projects. For that reason, the current two-thirds support in Munich strengthens the arguments of those who believe the city has a social mandate to continue the procedure.
Still, the referendum is not in itself sufficient for the selection of the German candidate. In the current procedure, the DOSB is assessing several proposals and has announced that an evaluation matrix will be used in the final phase. According to DOSB information, international competitiveness, economic feasibility and the sustainability of the proposed concepts are taken into account. In the official description of the procedure, the DOSB states that Berlin, Hamburg, Munich and the Rhine-Ruhr region passed the first phase, while the second phase allows local referendums where cities or regions want or are required to hold them.
DOSB chooses between four German concepts
Germany is not entering this race with one predetermined city, but with several domestic candidates. On its website, the DOSB lists four concepts: Berlin, Hamburg, Munich and Cologne-Rhine-Ruhr. Each of them is trying to offer a different model of the Games. Berlin presents itself as the capital with great symbolic weight and partner regions, Hamburg emphasises integrating the Games into the urban life of a city on the water, while the Cologne-Rhine-Ruhr region counts on a densely populated and sports-strong area of North Rhine-Westphalia. Munich, on the other hand, relies on Olympic legacy, short distances, the plan for a single Olympic Village and Bavarian support.
According to the City of Munich's statement, the final concept is to be submitted to the DOSB by 4 June 2026 together with an extensive questionnaire. That questionnaire, the city states, covers 25 areas of questions connected with five thematic fields of sustainability: the spirit of the Games, sporting, social and environmental sustainability, and the perspective of young people. After that, the DOSB is expected to evaluate the concepts with the involvement of Olympic sports federations and the federal government.
The final decision on the German candidate is scheduled for 26 September 2026 in Baden-Baden. If the DOSB chooses Munich, the city and Germany's sports leadership will enter the next phase, namely communication with the International Olympic Committee. If another German concept is chosen, Munich would be left without the national nomination, regardless of the support of the city council and the result of the local referendum.
The year of hosting has not yet been determined
One of the distinctive features of the current German strategy is that it is not targeting only one year. DOSB documents state that Germany is considering the 2036, 2040 or 2044 Olympic and Paralympic Games. The DOSB explains that at this stage it is not necessary to commit in advance to one year, but rather to be ready for the moment when a realistic European opportunity opens in the international procedure. This is important because the International Olympic Committee no longer conducts a classic bidding race according to the old model, but through continuous dialogue and targeted talks with potential hosts.
According to the IOC's explanation, the new host-selection model was developed to reduce bidding costs, increase flexibility and encourage projects that use existing infrastructure. In such a system, interested candidates can enter continuous dialogue, and only later, if the IOC assesses that the project has sufficient potential, can targeted dialogue with a selected preferred host be opened. This means that even a national selection by the DOSB would not automatically guarantee winning the Games, but would only open the door to the international procedure.
In political and historical terms, the year 2036 carries special weight in Germany because it would mark the centenary of the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin, held during the Nazi regime. For that reason, the German public is discussing whether that very year should be an opportunity for a democratic and open Olympic project, or whether it would be more appropriate to target 2040 or 2044. For now, the DOSB is not closing that debate with a single date, but is leaving room for a decision after national and international developments in the procedure.
Bavarian support and political arguments for the bid
The Free State of Bavaria publicly supports Munich's bid. The Bavarian Ministry of the Interior, Sport and Integration states that Bavaria, together with Munich and partners, wants to develop a sustainable and internationally convincing bid for the 2036, 2040 or 2044 Games. The ministry described the result of the October 2025 referendum as a strong signal for Munich as a sports city and for Bavaria as a sporting, sustainable and internationally competitive region.
Munich officials link the bid with urban development. In the statement, Mayor Dominik Krause said that Munich has experience with major events, international recognition and Olympic legacy, and singled out sustainability and innovative strength as the distinctive features of the bid. Sports officer Florian Kraus emphasised that the goal is to organise Games that would be a gain for the entire city community, with an additionally compact sports solution and sustainability projects that, according to the city's assessment, could have model character for Germany.
Critical questions, however, will not disappear even after the city council's decision. Every Olympic bid opens debates on costs, budget risks, security, construction deadlines, traffic burdens and the real benefit for residents. In Munich's case, particular attention will be paid to how feasible the announced projects really are within the planned deadlines, how high the public costs will be and whether the promises of circular, compact and long-term useful Games can be confirmed by concrete budgets and contracts.
The Olympic project now enters decisive months
The decision of Munich's city council is therefore important, but not final. It means that the city is entering the national selection with a politically confirmed and further elaborated concept. Compared with the initial phase, the bid is now more concrete in the scheduling of sports, transport ideas, sustainability, use of Theresienwiese, athlete housing and links with urban development. At the same time, key questions about financing, risks and international competition still have to gain full weight in the DOSB's final assessment.
For Germany, this is one of the most important sports-political processes in the coming months. If the DOSB decides on Munich on 26 September, the city will become the face of Germany's ambition to host the Summer Olympic Games in Germany again for the first time since Munich 1972. If Berlin, Hamburg or Cologne-Rhine-Ruhr is chosen, Munich's concept will remain a strong but insufficient attempt to return the Olympic flame to a city that still lives with the legacy of the 1972 Games.
Sources:
- City of Munich – statement on the city council's support for the more detailed Olympic concept and the further procedure toward the DOSB (link)
- DOSB – official information on the German bid procedure, candidates and selection phases (link)
- Bavarian Ministry of the Interior, Sport and Integration – information on Bavaria's support for Munich's Olympic bid (link)
- City of Munich – official final result of the referendum on the Olympic bid held on 26 October 2025 (link)
- International Olympic Committee – explanation of the reformed Olympic Games host-selection procedure (link)